This time and place
by AstridWinchester
Summary: <html><head></head>**NOT part of my series...When he spoke, her name slipped from his lips like a whispered prayer. "Buffy?"</html>


_**A/N: Again, not part of the A Light in the Dark series. **_

_**The setting is some bar, contains no spoilers. Post- 'Chosen' for Buffy and Post- 'Heart' for Supernatural. The flashback is Post Season 1 of Buffy when she spent her summer with Hank Summers in L.A. after the Master. Characters aren't mine, I claim no rights.**_

**This Time and Place**

Buffy took a seat at the packed bar, swiveling her stool to scan the crowd of people curiously. She was in Cleveland visiting Faith, who'd decided to stay on the Hellmouth here instead of joining Buffy and the Scoobies in England.

Faith was out on the floor of course, gyrating through the throngs of people with a flock of guys and she caught the blonde Slayer's eye for a wink. Buffy had broken things off with the Immortal recently and had decided to go stateside to clear her head and to visit Faith, and she wasn't sure she regretted the move.

She and Faith had gotten closer after the battle with the First but she'd grown apart from Willow and the others after they kicked her out that night. In fact Dawnie was the only one who'd apologized and Buffy knew Faith hadn't wanted any of it to happen in the first place.

She missed Dawnie, who was practicing with the Devon coven under Willow's careful eye. Dawn had decided to find out if she could tap into the energy that made her the Key and use it to become a witchy Watcher and Willow was finishing up her rehab. She wasn't sure where Xander was, he'd taken off after Anya and she hadn't heard much from him since. Giles and Andrew were in England still, working with the mini-Slayers and the Watcher's-to-be.

Faith had apparently taken some time from Robin and had wheedled Buffy into going out to a bar instead of staying in or Slaying, having told her to let loose and have some fun for once and Buffy had reluctantly caved. Buffy nursed her drink, rum and coke easy on the rum and watched the people bustle and flirt.

It was when her gaze landed on two guys that she felt her heart jump into her throat and almost choked on her drink as she took a closer look at one of them. One didn't look familiar to her except for the resemblance to the second who'd caught her startled eye. The other she couldn't have forgotten if she tried, and she had tried a dozen times and then some over the years. Her brain flashed back to the last time she'd seen the teen-turned man now and she studied him, unable to tear her eyes away.

_Buffy was tired. She was walking along a dark street at some ungodly hour in L.A. musing about how much her life sucked. She'd come to visit her father for the summer and she was trying to block out the nightmares that been plagueing her since she'd been resuscitated. Visions of blood draining from her body, the agony of being bitten by the Master. The numbness that had set in as the pool of water rushed up to meet her, of drowning in the water and feeling her life slip away only to be yanked back._

_She heard the distinct sounds of fighting in the alleyway up ahead so she quickened her pace, reaching into her pocket for the stake stashed there. When she reached the source of the scuffle she stopped to watch as a guy in his early 20's fighting with a typical fledgling vamp she could have dusted in only a few seconds._

_The guy was dressed in scuffed boots, worn jeans with rips in them, a leather jacket over a plaid button down over an olive green shirt. Around his neck hung some sort of charm and he gripped a gun in one hand and an ax in the other._

_The guy ducked a blow from the vampire and darted to one side, hacking at the vampire's exposed appendage. The vamp roared in fury when plaid-guy's swing landed and tossed the guy several feet and against a dumpster. She decided to make her presence known and stepped into the light and directly into the vamp's line of vision._

_"Gee, just when I thought my summer would be boring!" Buffy quipped, her stance deceptively at ease with her arms behind her back, stake at the ready. The vamp turned golden eyes on her and snarled._

_"Slayer!"_

_"That'd be me, and you are?"_

_"Your end."_

_"Wow," she scoffed as the guy behind her started to stir. "That's not terribly original, you know that?"_

_Rather than answer, the vampire charged at her and she deftly stepped to one side, allowing the vampire's momentum to carry him right past her. She thrust her stake into the chest as the vamp passed and he exploded into dust._

_A little of the dust got into her nose and mouth and she sneezed twice violently. She turned to leave the alley, not sparing the guy a glance even though he called out to her. She heard his footsteps shuffling behind her as he followed and she rolled her eyes when she realized that he was totally checking out her ass. She paused at the mouth of the alley to glare at him and he gave her a shameless smirk, aware he'd been caught._

_"I'm going that way now," she said. She gestured in the direction of her father's and he glanced that way then back at her. "Good night, and try not to get yourself killed."_

_Without waiting for a reply she flipped the hood of her jacket over her head and trudged down the street. When she didn't hear his footsteps she relaxed until she heard instead the sound of a car inching along behind her. She tried to hide a smile by ducking her head down and looking at the sidewalk. This guy was stubborn!_

_Dean pulled up next to her at a crawl and glanced across the passenger seat through the window at her but said nothing for several minutes. He wasn't intending to just drive off and leave her there, at least not until one of two things happened: the first being that she was safe and sound in her home or the second would be if she broke down and he could find out more about her in the midst of an argument._

_There was something in her eyes that said she was lost and her body language screamed 'Fuck off!' but he saw right through it. This girl was fighting more than your run of the mill demons, she was battling personal ones._

_"Are you going to follow me home?" She snapped exasperatedly and he grinned. She'd taken the bait._

_"That was my brilliant plan, yeah." He agreed easily and she let out a frustrated huff but wouldn't look at him again. He was still going over the brawl in his mind—what he could remember anyway—and he wasn't able to think of an explanation for what he'd seen. How had this slip of a girl of maybe 16 or so managed to excel where he'd fallen short in killing the thing? He'd never seen anything like it and it stumped him._

_"And that's not creepy stalker-like at all," she grumped, rolling her eyes at the stubborn guy. "I am a big girl, I can take care of myself. You can go now." She made a shooing motion but she knew it was fruitless, the guy wasn't buying it._

_"I see that. But you see, I've got a problem with letting chicks walk in the dark alone at night. Gives me indigestion." He joked, his eyes dancing with amusement. Oh yeah, he liked this girl._

_"Right, well I'm sorry to mess up your digestive system." She waited a beat as she thought over that choice of words then wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Which sounds majorly gross, by the way."_

_He couldn't help it- he laughed. He laughed for a long minute and she grudgingly cracked a smile. He leaned over across the seat and opened the passenger door so she could climb in and went back to staring out the windshield. But when she made no move to get in, he rolled his eyes and peered out the window at her. "Would you get in already? I swear I'm not a psycho killer."_

_She considered it for longer than necessary just to irk him but climbed in after a moment. He picked up his speed as they drove down the deserted street but when he pulled into a diner she swung her gaze to look at him. He gave her a cheeky grin and slipped his car keys into his pocket before getting out instead of answering her obvious question. She sat there staring at him for several minutes until he patted the hood and jerked his thumb at her to get out too._

_She sighed as she closed the door and stuffed her hands in her jacket pockets, regarding him with raised eyebrows. "I'm hungry." He stated simply and led the way into the diner and to a corner booth. He smiled charmingly at the waitress and ordered a burger, fries and a slice of pie._

_Buffy declined with a shake of her head and a polite smile and the waitress set a glass of water in front of her. She toyed with the straw in silence, aware that he was still studying her. He didn't say anything, just watched. He crossed his arms on the table top and leaned closer to her, then gave her a smile when she looked up to meet his eyes. "I'm Dean."_

_"Buffy," she offered. She was expecting the usual crack about her name but it didn't come, he just nodded and went back to watching her silently, lost in thought. This girl—Buffy—was skittish, he could see it in her eyes, read it in the signals she was throwing off._

_He was trying to figure out what to say and how to phrase the questions that were spinning around his head without making her bolt. He was also enjoying just observing her. All the emotions that flitted across her face, the way her sun-kissed hair fell just so over her shoulders, and the fact that she wouldn't hold his eyes for more than a minute further intrigued him._

_"So," he started finally as he swirled a french fry in some ketchup once his food was placed in front of him. "How long have you been a Hunter?" _

Buffy stared at Dean in shock, her body and mind completely shutting down as she drank him in. She hadn't seen him in person since that summer, true, but she still was able to recognize him from a distance.

They'd exchanged phone numbers that night and had called each other a few times over the years whenever the other needed to talk, needed a friend. When Angel had lost his soul, she'd called him. When she'd sent him to Hell, she'd called him. When Faith went rogue, she called him. When she graduated and defeated the mayor, she'd called him. When Riley left, she called him. When her mom died, she called him. When Willow brought her back after she died, she cried to him about how hard it was to be back, she told him about being in Heaven.

Dean had called her too over the years, though not as often as she'd called him. When Sam went to Stanford, he'd called. When he had a particularly bad case and needed to hear her voice, he called. When his dad disappeared, he'd confided in her the fears he had about seeing his brother again. When his dad died at the hands of the same demon that had killed Mary Winchester, he'd called. When Sam began having the nightmarish visions, he called.

Never in a million years would she have believed she'd run into him again, in Cleveland of all places. He still dressed the same but he was taller, and his eyes still held the spark she remembered but he looked more worn now, older. She was so caught up in her study of Dean from afar that she didn't even see Faith return to the table. She snapped out of it when a hand was waved in front of her face and she jumped, spilling her drink on the bar.

Faith twisted around to see what had caught B's eye and she gave her sister Slayer a grin of approval when she spotted the two hunks. Buffy blushed and mopped up the wet bar, not meeting Faith's curious eyes. "Go talk to them B," she suggested, taking a sip of her beer. "You've been staring at them for like 20 minutes, just go say hi."

Buffy sputtered and chanced a look at the Winchester's but became frozen in fear when Dean caught her looking and held her gaze. She wasn't sure why she was so afraid, maybe it was finally seeing him again, maybe that he'd ask her questions she didn't know the answer to, maybe it was even that he wouldn't recognize her or might blow her off.

Several emotions filtered through his eyes and across his face when he looked back at her: surprise, curiosity, confusion and finally recognition as he placed a face to the voice he'd become so used to hearing.

Buffy tried to ignore Faith's questioning expression and tore her eyes from Dean's and back to the bar. She tried to grab her purse and make a hasty escape for the bathroom where he couldn't follow but her purse decided to conspire against her by getting caught on the stool's leg. When she reached to untangle it, the fear and warning in her head that was telling her to run evaporated at the sound of his smooth tenor caressing her ears.

Dean Winchester eyed the patrons, feeling a little prick on the back of his neck that usually meant he was being watched or followed. He swept his gaze around, searching for the source while allowing his hand to drift to his jacket where his gun was holstered. Sam was beside him at the bar, drinking his own beer and smiling at the bartender politely.

Dean had bugged Sammy relentlessly about going out and having some fun and something had drawn him to this specific bar tonight. He was worried if he was honest with himself, Sam had been even quieter since the whole thing with Madison but since Dean wasn't good at 'chick flick' moments, he'd opted for getting his baby brother shit-faced instead. They'd come to Cleveland because of some rumors about corporeal demons and a different breed of vampire but what had drawn him to this bar was still a mystery.

When he saw the flash of blonde hair, something clicked in his memory and he met he girl's eyes when she sneaked a glance at him. She was the one who'd been watching him, he was sure of it and the longer he studied her face, the more certain he became that he'd seen her before. She wasn't someone he'd slept with, he'd have known that off the bat, but she was definitely someone he'd come across.

Then his memory snapped and he recognized her eyes as the ones that had haunted him since his early twenties and belonged to none other than the girl he'd called up months ago after hearing about the sinkhole formerly known as Sunnydale, CA. She'd reassured him that she was indeed alright and had told him about her battle with some Big Bad called the First, as well as the spell her witch friend—Willow, her name was if he remembered right—had done to activate all the Slayers. They'd talked for a few hours and caught up before reluctantly bidding each other good night.

Her eyes widened and she started to grab her purse, retreat clear in her mind from what he could see. He didn't stop to wonder why she was running from him, merely knew he needed to stop her before she disappeared again from his sight. He left Sam at the bar despite his protests and questions and moved quickly to the two girls.

Dean's gaze was fixed on Buffy and he didn't even notice the other girl with her, he was too captivated by the vision in front of him. He barely managed to refrain from reaching out for her to convince himself that she wasn't a trick of his tired mind or a dream. When he spoke, her name slipped from his lips like a whispered prayer. "Buffy?"


End file.
